Call to pay mayor more than €30k

A reduced salary of €30,000 for Cork city’s future lords mayor will not be enough to attract councillors to want the role, a former holder of the job has said.

Fianna Fáil councillor Terry Shannon said he appreciates there was a need to cut the pay associated with the year-long honorary position as chair of Cork City Council, which members had previously tied to the basic salary of TDs, currently over €87,000 a year.

But, he said, it also needs to be adequate enough for prospective candidates to be willing to give up their own job for a year. The reduction is in line with a new scale of maximum mayoral salaries set by Minister Phil Hogan, largely based on the size of each local authority.